


Seven Birds Meta

by bramblePatch



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Archived from Bramblepatch Blog, Headcanon, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, Starblaster crew - Freeform, TAZ: Balance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 20:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16878735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bramblePatch/pseuds/bramblePatch
Summary: Several short pieces of meta from my Tumblr, dealing with the dynamics between the various members of the Starblaster's crew.





	1. On Depth of Relationships

Thinking about the Starblaster crew - I suspect it’s notable that the longer-lived crew members are also the ones who seem to have had trouble connecting with people in the long term before the Starblaster mission. It’s not unreasonable to think that an adult elf, dwarf, or even gnome might have friendships reaching back the better part of a century - but Lup and Taako depend solely on each other, Merle is estranged from the community he was raised in, and Davenport’s life revolves around his work with the Institute to the point that if you take that away the only thing he has left is his own name.

We don’t see that so much in the human crew members - we don’t know much about Lucretia’s background, but Magnus and Barry both seem to have strongly positive bonds with their home communities, and all three seem to have much more readily built new bonds in Faerun. The BoB is a large, complex group which seems to be consistently loyal to Lucretia. Even missing large parts of his memory and taking orders from a recording of his own voice he can’t remember making, Barry is consistently outgoing, friendly, and trusting. And Magnus puts down roots in a goddamn heartbeat - in Refuge when placing the chalice, in Ravens Roost with Julia, even on the Moonbase he has a lot more close friendships outside the team than either Taako or Merle.

I think it’s possible that the Seven Birds’ bonds are, in part, what happens when you give humans the chance to build relationships on the time scale of the longer-lived races. It’s not that no one’s ever loved someone for a hundred years, but it’s very rare for those relationships to have the kind of intensity that a short lifespan encourages.


	2. The Starblaster Filing System

I love that an integral part of Barry Bluejeans’ planning process is “get out a big-ass map and start drawing on it” and also he does the full-blown conspiracy theorist papers-and-string board thing

Also that at the beginning of the campaign Taako’s spellbook is notes scribbled in the margins of a copy of  _Seven Habits of Highly Effective Elves_  and I don’t think Justin ever specified that he’d moved to anything more traditional?

I bet the Starblaster archives were a fucking mess within a few cycles. Lucretia has no idea what to do with these two nerds and their inability to take coherent notes on anything. She needs to cross-reference something for the chronicle and it’s written on the back of a paper coaster because the twins figured it out in a dive bar and Barry’s the only one who knows where that coaster is because Lup gave it to him for safe keeping and he doesn’t seem to care whether they even have a filing system.


	3. Magnus Burnsides: Lich Hugger

Without his memories, Magnus makes multiple attempts to physically interact with ~the mysterious Red Robe~ and like… with how much Barry takes this in stride I have to assume that this is not purely a post-voidfish development.

Like just… every time that Barry and/or Lup had to finish out a cycle in lich form, I bet Magnus just straight up forgot that they were incorporeal until reset. If he stops and thinks about it he knows That’s How Liches Do, but c'mon, it’s Lup and Barry, he’s lived in close quarters with them for decades and he doesn’t really think about it before initiating friendly physical content anymore. They have to figure out how to more or less reflexively do whatever it is liches do to interact with physical objects because Magnus keeps handing them things. He tries to casually lean on Lup’s shoulder and falls straight through her and lands on his ass and now Taako won’t stop laughing.

(And maybe he’s doing it a little on purpose, because everyone’s always a little shaken after a death, even if the dead party is one of the liches, and they could use some slapstick for comic relief.)


	4. Cap'nport Despairs of them All

Things I would tend to assume are not actually permitted under the IPRE dress code:

  * jacket and robe at the same time
  * robe over jeans
  * jacket with no shirt under it
  * a t-shirt with your own name on it



Things worn by the Starblaster crew on official business:

  * literally all of that




End file.
